Peyton's Path: Fighting Fate Book 2

by SM Olivier

  Crew entered the room and took a seat at the table. “Thanks for the snacks by the way.”

  “No problem.” I smiled up at him.

  “I wonder where my snacks are?” Paxton grumbled jokingly.

  “Oh, you didn’t get any either?” Golden quipped back.

  “Join a sport,” Zane said smugly. “Then we’ll pack you some, too.”

  Paxton shook his head. “Not happening.”

  I knew Paxton liked to lift weights and did light cardio. He just wasn’t into organized sports. The guys told me he used to play baseball, but he lost interest when he got into middle school. He still enjoyed watching it, but he didn’t have the desire to play.

  “Um… two things,” I said, smiling at their banter, then perused the food. It looked like they’d ordered Italian subs, and despite the fact I had healthy food on hand, I couldn’t resist. “Why are we eating in here? Not that it’s not a nice change,” I gave Mr. Isaacs an apologetic smile. “And why are all the news vans here? Shouldn’t they be at the middle school? That’s where Claire went to school.”

  “It’s chaos out there, so I asked Loch if we could come in here for lunch,” Paxton said without meeting my eyes.

  I knew he wasn’t telling me everything. He was avoiding eye contact and was fidgeting. He really wasn’t the greatest of liars. My eyes narrowed on him.

  “They’re there, too,” Mr. Isaacs added. “Steve is trying to get the state boys called in to get them off the property, but it’s tricky.”

  Who was Steve? I wanted to ask, but my mouth was full of spicy Italian goodness. I’ve had hoagies from Philly, and they ruined me from cheesesteaks and subs. This was this closest thing to a hoagie I have ever tasted.

  “Mr. Fanning,” Zane supplied as if he understood my look of confusion.

  Mr. Isaacs smiled self-deprecatingly. “I guess I should have said that instead of Steve.” He shrugged before taking a bite of his own sub.

  “You rang?” Mr. Fanning said jokingly as he came into the room.

  He had a broad smile on his face, but I could see the stress there. He stopped short in surprise as he saw the semi-packed office.

  “Trial by fire for you. Are you glad you took the position here?” I joked. “Do you feel like you’ve entered the Twilight Zone yet?”

  He gave me a crooked smile before he ran a hand through his hair. He seemed to debate his answer before he sighed heavily. “You could say that.”

  “Have a seat, Steve,” Mr. Isaacs said. “We have an extra sub here. These are my brothers, Paxton and Golden.” He indicated them. “That’s Crew and Zane, we practically grew up together, and you met Peyton. Mr. Fanning went to my alma mater.”

  Mr. Fanning didn’t hesitate to take the empty seat next to Crew and Mr. Isaacs. “Hello, all.” He waved before turning to Mr. Isaacs. “Thanks, man,” he said. “Who do I owe? And let’s get this right, you went to my alma mater. I graduated years before you,” he joked.

  “Semantics,” Mr. Isaacs joked back with a shrug. “As for the subs, Mr. Delaney got them, but he won’t take your money.”

  Mr. Fanning looked over at me. The questions were still in his eyes. It was apparent he was still trying to figure out my family dynamics. If he would have asked Mr. Isaacs, I knew he wouldn’t have said anything.

  “Senior,” I explained with a rueful smile. “My grandpa.”

  He opened and closed his mouth before he shook his head.

  Paxton and Golden immediately started laughing, enjoying his predicament. They seemed to find amusement in others’ discomfort at times.

  “And your…sister is…missing?” he asked finally, as if he thought it was the safest topic to broach.

  I found it easier to talk about my situation if I took it lightly and only skimmed over the facts. People stopped asking if they thought they knew all the facts.

  I held up the other half of my sandwich to the guys. Crew and Paxton both went to snatch it from my hands, but Crew was faster. He gave Paxton a smug smile as Paxton grumbled. I laughed. This is what I needed, a little interlude of normalcy. Being with them…grounded me.

  “I didn’t know David Delaney was my father until a little over a month ago. His family didn’t know of my existence. My Grandpa and I get along, but his other family finds it tougher to accept me,” I explained finally. “Leah, Dylan, and Claire are my half-siblings, and yes, Claire has been missing since the early hours of Saturday morning.”

  Mr. Fanning gave Mr. Isaacs a skeptical look, and Mr. Isaacs chuckled. “It’s all the truth.”

  “Mr. Fanning?” Mrs. Edwards came around the corner, looking harassed. “The State Police are on the phone.”

  Mr. Fanning groaned before standing up. “Thanks, and thanks for lunch.” Mr. Fanning held up his half-eaten sub before wrapping it back up. “Duty calls.”

  “Well he seems to be an improvement to Mr. Boyd,” Paxton said with a shrug. “And Mrs. Reynolds, for that matter.”

  “He’s not in the PTA’s pocket,” Crew grumbled, still upset about Friday night.

  “And he definitely won’t be touching girls inappropriately,” Mr. Isaac said before he wiped his mouth.

  I tensed. I never told the guys that Mr. Boyd had touched me.

  “Who did he touch inappropriately?” Golden asked in surprise.

  Mr. Isaacs’ electric blue eyes snapped up to mine for a brief second. He must have seen my panic, because he cast his eyes back down and coughed. “Forget I said anything. I shouldn’t have said that much.” Mr. Isaacs shook his head.

  Zane and Crew both had their eyes on me, then they turned back to Mr. Isaacs, their expressions suspicious.

  The bell rang. I popped up. “Well, Math calls,” I said as I quickly gathered my trash.

  “Peyton,” Crew growled.

  I continued to walk, but I knew I wasn’t going to shake them off that quickly. They were a determined little bunch.

  I sighed. “Look.” I finally stopped as we neared the doors that led into the school. “It was the first day of school. I didn’t know you guys that well. Mr. Boyd pulled me into his office for my ‘potty mouth’ and then—” I stopped as my mind wandered back to that day. He had called me Ava, and it hadn’t been the first time—a few times, in fact. What if…

  I shook my head. No. No, the guy who had been stalking me was stocky and slightly above average height.

  The police already determined Claire had been carried. Mr. Boyd was short and slim. There was no way he could have carried Claire for over a mile.

  “And then,” Zane prodded. “Are you okay?”

  I shook my head. “Yeah, I was just thinking,” I said hesitantly. “He had called me Ava. He called me Ava twice. He seemed obsessed by her, but the man who was following me was stocky.”

  “Are you trying to say you think Mr. Boyd took Claire?” Golden was looking at me like I was losing it.

  “Can we get back to what happened that day?” Crew grumbled.

  “Well, he took me into the office, called me Ava, and then he insisted my skirt was too short. Then he proceeded to grab me by the thighs as he measured the distance between my knee and the hem of my skirt.” I saw the fury and anger in their eyes. “Mr. Isaacs came in and threw him off of me. It happened so long ago. Do you think if I called Officer Pope, he could tell me if there's a possibility that the kidnapper worked with someone?”

  “Why are you deflecting, and why didn’t you tell us?” Golden frowned at me.

  “Again…” I sighed. “It was the first day of school.”

  “Enough, boys,” Mr. Isaacs said firmly. “Time to get to class before you are all late. This discussion can be tabled for later.”

  “Yes, later,” I murmured before quickly grabbing the knob to the office door.

  Golden and Crew grumbled, and I knew they didn’t want to postpone this conversation.

  14

  ●

  Shopping

  “Should we tell your mom now or later?” I asked Zane as we
slipped into one of the training rooms.

  I was done with dance for the night, and Zane’s private lesson with a student had been canceled. He asked me if I had any idea what I wanted to work on for our duet. I told him I had a few ideas, so he led me into the empty studio as we waited for Golden to come pick me up in half an hour.

  “Later,” he said decisively before his lips descended on mine.

  This was a new level of Zane I hadn’t seen. His mouth was hungry as it attempted to coax the same response from me. I opened my mouth for him, my tongue meeting his with the same eagerness he was exhibiting.

  It was so hard to go all day imagining what we did the night before. During Calculus, he had sat behind me and would inconspicuously stroke my bare arm from time to time. In English class, he had been discreetly affectionate as he extended his legs beneath my desk and occasionally ran his foot against my ankles. In cheer class− yes, we had class today− I caught his desire-filled eyes on me more than once as I practiced. I may or may not have added an extra wiggle in my walk when I knew he was watching.

  He groaned as his mouth trailed down my neck. “I want to be inside you,” he husked in my ear before grazing his teeth across my jaw. “I’ve been thinking about you all day.”

  I moaned as he hit an especially erogenous area. My breath left me as my skin rippled with sexual tension. “Me too,” I whimpered.

  I weaved my fingers through his short dark hair, throwing my head back, allowing him better access to my throat. He pulled me closer allowing me to feel his erection against my stomach. I gasped as I felt the warmth settle in my limbs. I rubbed against him, and he groaned painfully.

  Someone attempted to open the door to the studio, and like a bucket of ice water, it doused our desire. We barely had time to put some distance between us before Alex, Anya’s right-hand woman, peered into the small, glass window. I grabbed my phone and sat down, so it looked like I was scrolling through it, while Zane made the few steps to open the door.

  “Hey, Alex,” Zane said casually as he ran a hand through his hair. “What’s up?”

  She eyed us suspiciously. “Just wondering why the door was locked?”

  “It was?” Zane asked incredulously.

  I couldn’t see his face, but his voice sounded convincing enough to me.

  Alex eyed us both suspiciously. “What you guys up to?”

  “I’ve decided to do a duet with Peyton, for the upcoming competition at Elite Vibe in nine weeks,” Zane explained.

  Alex’s jaw dropped, almost comically, before she turned her large eyes on me. She was a beautiful African woman with dark skin, long locks that she kept in braids, and dark nearly-black eyes. She was originally from South Africa and still carried the accent.

  “You’re dancing again?” she asked incredulously.

  Zane looked at me with a small smile. “What can I say? Peyton wanted a partner, and Mom’s been harping on me to compete for years. I figured I’ll give it another go.” He turned to me, and I could still see the slight apprehension in his eyes, but I also saw his confident smile.

  “What kind of performance are you thinking?” She immediately came in the room and sat down next to me.

  I guess she was staying… I could almost laugh at Zane’s pouty expression.

  “I want it to be something moving, kind of like our group number this weekend,” I admitted to her, biting my lip to prevent me from laughing.

  “I was thinking about that, and I think I have a topic I’d like portrayed,” Zane said hesitantly as he took a seat next to us.

  We both looked at him expectantly.

  “I want to do a piece about domestic violence.” Zane blew out a breath.

  I tried to contain my sharp inhale but I… couldn’t. This number, like our group number this week, would be intensely personal. This would hit home for both of us. It would reveal so much of who we were, revealing our souls. I had dealt with it for years at the hands of Sean. And Zane would be exposing his truths through this number as well.

  I nodded. “Let’s do it. I think I might even have a song for it.”

  I shuffled through one of my playlists and found the song. I hooked it up to the blue tooth speakers and soon Lovely sung by Billie Eilish, featuring Khalid, poured over us. Alex closed her eyes and swayed with the music.

  Zane stood up and began to pace, his eyes closed as well.

  Once the last note of the song was over, Alex opened her eyes. “Zane, I need you here, Peyton over there.”

  Alex wasn’t technically our principal choreographer, but she contributed to a lot of our dance numbers. She had trained for many years herself and was multi-talented in many areas. We didn’t even hesitate before we both moved into position the way she instructed.

  And just like that, the three of us brainstormed and collaborated for a piece that we hoped touched people the way it had affected us.

  ●

  Golden was waiting for me outside when I stepped out of the studio. Thanks to Anya’s quick thinking, I was able to slip out the back door, away from the news crews that were hoping to get me to answer their invasive questions.

  “Hey, darlin’.” Golden smiled as I climbed into his jeep. “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving,” I admitted truthfully.

  “What are you in the mood for?” he asked as he took my hand in his and kissed the back of it.

  He leaned forward with his other hand and turned up his radio slightly. He was a stereotypical country boy, so Middle of a Memory by Cole Swindell was currently playing. I smiled and leaned forward to turn on the heat.

  Fall was definitely setting in. The days were still warm, but the nights were quickly becoming chillier.

  “Chipotle?” I offered.

  He nodded. “I can go for some Mexican.”

  “Where are we heading?” I asked him as I settled in.

  “There’s a three-story furniture store about forty-five minutes away. It should have everything you need there, including décor, curtains, throw rugs, prints,” he said, sounding a little too excited.

  I laughed. At his confused look, I explained, “You sound entirely too enthusiastic. I’m not much of a shopper, and if Madison were here, I would have contracted this job out to her.” I frowned slightly with thoughts of her. I still hadn’t turned on my old phone—I’d actually been dark on all my social media accounts.

  “I’ll try to make this as painless as possible.” He laughed and shook his head; then, as if picking up on my sudden sadness, he asked, “Are you okay?”

  “I miss Madison and Lucas,” I admitted. “Part of me feels like I should reach out to them and forgive them. I mean, we all make stupid, rash mistakes. They hadn’t known I needed them that night. I should have told them I was hiding from Sean. They would have come. I know they would have. And although I hate knowing Lucas hooked up with Clem… I can’t forget how much his family was there for me throughout the years. I would have never found my love for bikes or even learned how to work on them if it wasn’t for Mickey.”

  “Do you think they feel…remorse for what they did?” he asked, squeezing my hand.

  I nodded without hesitation. “I have to admit, since we all began high school, they became more self-absorbed, but it wasn’t like they wouldn’t have tried if I had spoken up. I kind of enabled their behavior. They can be single-minded at times, but I know they love me. Their good traits do outweigh the bad.”

  He nodded. “Maybe you should call them then. Weren’t they supposed to come to visit you this weekend?”

  “That was before our fall out. But I have a competition this weekend. Even with our three day weekend coming up, I don’t think it’s worth it for them to drive up Friday afternoon, watch me cheer, get back on the road for the three-hour drive to my competition, then come back here, just to spend Sunday and half of Monday with me.”

  “It is your birthday this weekend. Maybe you can ask them if they want to come up Saturday night. You can stay at our house, and the guest
rooms are ready for them,” Golden suggested.

  I nearly cringed. When I was younger, my mom used to celebrate my birthday. She would get me a cookie or cupcake. Occasionally, she would buy me a gift, but it was never a big deal in my household. It was almost like Sean resented my existence, and the celebration of my birthday was just a reminder of what he couldn’t have.

  I once brashly made a dig about his virility, and I knew it had been a direct hit. I remembered the fights all too well when I was younger. Sean had wanted children. They had tried. I remembered how upset Mom was when she realized that she wasn’t pregnant. I recalled how Sean had always hit the bottle than her.

  He always blamed my mother and wouldn’t go get tested himself. It was a possibility that their fertility issues had been my mom’s, but I highly doubted it. I think the blame had lain Sean, and he was just too…macho to go to the doctor.

  Lucas and Madison might have become slightly self-absorbed and flighty, but they never forgot my birthday. We had always made a day of it since I was fourteen. It was going to be weird not celebrating it with them this year.

  I nodded. “It’s definitely something to think about, but we can’t forget the media circus circling us right now. It’s crazy how much attention this is getting from the national news networks. Their fixation on me could ruin a visit, too.”

  “Well if it’s something you want to do, we can make it work,” he said confidently.

  I smiled at him and welcomed the silence that followed.

  ●

  “Excuse me, sir, ma’am,” a feminine nasally voice said with barely concealed annoyance. “We sell furniture here…this is not a…playground.”

  I had to refrain from giggling as Golden’s golden eyes twinkled at me from under the covers of the bed.

  I needed a night like tonight to help me forget the chaos of my life. Shopping with Golden was actually fun. We had sat on numerous couches and even watched a full episode of Big Bang Theory on one of them. Golden found a throw blanket that was supposed to be for display purposes, and we cuddled under it as we watched the show.